NRAO Teams With NASA Gamma-Ray Satellite

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is teaming with NASA's
upcoming Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) to allow astronomers
to use both the orbiting facility and ground-based radio telescopes to
maximize their scientific payoff. Under the new, streamlined process,
astronomers can compete for coordinated observing time and support from
both GLAST and NRAO's radio telescopes.

"Coordinated gamma-ray and radio observations of celestial objects will
greatly enhance the ability to fully understand those objects. Astronomy
today requires such multiwavelength studies, and this agreement paves the
way for exciting, cutting-edge research," said Fred K.Y. Lo, NRAO Director.

GLAST will be vastly more capable than previous gamma-ray satellites, and
will carry an instrument, the GLAST Burst Monitor, specifically designed
to detect gamma-ray bursts. GLAST observers will study objects such as
active galaxies, pulsars, and supernova remnants, which are also readily
studied with radio telescopes. By working together, NASA's GLAST mission
and NSF's NRAO facilities can study flares from blazars over the widest
possible range of energies, which is crucial to understanding how black
holes, notorious for drawing matter in, can accelerate jets of material
to nearly light speed.

"The gamma-ray and radio observations will show scientists different
aspects of many still-mysterious objects and processes. By providing a
simple procedure for astronomers to win observing time on radio telescopes
to follow up on our new gamma-ray discoveries, we're ensuring that we
get the maximum scientific return from both," said GLAST project scientist
Steve Ritz of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "The
importance of this coordinated approach has been highlighted by a recent
two-day workshop at Goddard, in which we discussed the scientific benefits
and coordination of radio Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations
made in conjunction with GLAST."

NRAO's radio telescopes have been used for many years as part of
multiwavelength observing programs in conjunction with both ground-based
and space-based observatories. Usually, however, astronomers had to submit
separate observing proposals to two or more review committees, with no
guarantee that they would win observing time on all desired telescopes.
For its part, NASA spacecraft such as the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory
and the Chandra X-ray Observatory have opened wide new windows on the
high-energy universe.

Astronomers, including those on a recent NSF Senior Review panel, have
urged reductions in administrative barriers to gaining observing time
at multiple wavelengths. "This NRAO-GLAST agreement eases the process
of winning observing time on NRAO telescopes to complement
the GLAST all-sky gamma-ray survey. In particular, the continent-wide
VLBA is the only existing radio telescope that can image and monitor
the sites of extreme gamma-ray flares in distant galaxies," said Jim
Ulvestad, NRAO's Director for VLA-VLBA Operations. "We expect to see
arrangements like this become much more common in the future, to the
benefit of the science."

NASA's
GLAST mission is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership,
developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, along
with important contributions from academic institutions and partners
in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the U.S.